


Meant To Be Between

by Satans_Niece



Category: Winternight Series - Katherine Arden
Genre: ....when drunk, Chaos gods will be chaos gods, F/M, Making Out, Medved is a salty bastard, Morozko is a prude, Multi, Vasya loves that shit, We love that pagan polygamy, good enough to make a lesbian interested in hetero making out, it's just drabbles I promise, make sure to make your chaos spirit feel loved, necking, please get you're hopes up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:02:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23285209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Satans_Niece/pseuds/Satans_Niece
Summary: Vasilisa Petrovna saved Rus' and the chyert, and began her life as a bridge.  Not fully human or chyert, caught between the mundane world and the road through Midnight, having bound both Morozko and Medved to her will.  Splitting her time between Morozko in the long winters and Medved when the frost recedes, Vasya walks a fine line between her vassals.  The twins make full advantage of their time...
Relationships: Medved/Vasilisa Petrovna/Morozko, Morozko/Vasilisa Petrovna, Vasilisa Petrovna/Medved
Comments: 8
Kudos: 24





	1. Goodbye for a time

Vasya lay again in the large bed, staring up at the ceiling that was not. When she looked hard enough, she could see painted eves, flickering in the light cast by the oven. Lately though, more often she saw the bare night sky, and knew herself to be lying in a snowdrift. Winter didn’t chill her, and fire didn’t burn her, and neither did the night cast shadows she couldn’t see through. She knew herself to have changed, though some things seemed to stay the same.

She knew the Bear was waiting for her at the edge of the lake by the way the bagiennick eyed the woods distastefully, and the frogs were quiet.

“Don’t you have nightmares to weave and priests to tempt, Eater?”

The demon stepped out of the woods, human accept for his grin.

“Does there have to be a reason for me to drop by?”

Vasya sighed, “Yes. It is not yet spring.What do you want?”

The Bear looked almost morose.“There’s no madness in your eyes, no spark waiting to burn the world.” He picked a human nail with a curved claw, “You’re not keeping up your end of the bargain, letting my brother drag you so far into the light that not one inch of your gaze sparks”

“And you say that after the summer before last you had me all to yourself, the shadow on the wall of Tatar encampments, breathing fear down the necks of men as a dragon belches fire to the dawn?”

The Bear had the nerve to look lonely, “But you’re not human anymore, sweet, and that opens the door to a whole new realm of possibilities.”

Vasya knew she should mourn the loss of her humanity, although she was not fully chyert either.Her blood still held power, and her self did not waver with the belief of men, though she had begun to believe that she was both more and less than chyert or human.

“I don’t need more possibilities, lest I go as mad as my great grandmother” Vasya parried, wary of the Bear’s skill with words.

The Bear sighed dramatically.“You’re Karachun’s for as long as the frost graces the ground, but the season will turn and it will be my turn.”

Vasya bristled. “You two don’t get to fight over me like so many children over a honey bun.I go where I please, and step in to check your antics as I like.”

Medved smiled in a way that raised the hairs on Vasya’s neck. “You’ve learned much from Baba Yaga in your midnights with her, but you are still a fledgling god.You know neither what you are nor of your domain.

“Really? I am the bridge.I am the go between for humanity and chyerti, for Midnight and Midday.For the Holy and the Unholy, and for you and Morozko.

The Eater smiled wider. “Exactly what I was saying, sweet, you can’t be a go between without going between the two sides you bridge.You’ve communed between humans and chyerti, and brokered peace between the bell-ringers and our people, but you linger here in the winter woods past your time, and give undue measure to only one side of your nature. Or have you forgotten your flames, of the way you laughed through the screams of the tatars? You are a god of order, yes, but also more chaos spirit than you care to realize.”

Vasya held his gaze.“I will remain in your brother’s realm until the frost recedes, and then I will join you in the sweaty courts of men for the summer months.You will not enjoy it, I assure you.”

Medved laughed, “You underestimate yourself, Vasochka”

That night Vasya’s dreams were plagued with fire, and she curled tightly into Morozko’s back, tight enough that he woke her up and sent her back to sleep, freezing out Medved’s influence on her dreams.Still, in the morning sun, Vasya could see the snow dropping off the trees, the sun growing stronger, strong enough to push its warmth into the nooks and crannies of the forest.Birds were reappearing, and the rusalka was up on a branch combing her long, weedy hair.Soon the frost would recede.Morozko seemed unbothered, though his face darkened at mention of his brother.He couldn’t intervene, nor could he try, as his realm stretched only as far as winter did, and no farther. 

Several weeks later, as his finery dissipated with the winter wind and the ice-roads began to thaw, Morozko gave her a ring, glittering like ice on a January morning.

“Last time I gave you a gem it was to keep me from fading, and now I give you this to keep you from forgetting.My brother is a wily demon, and he will try to twist your mind to the shape of his own.” 

Vasya studied his face, and finding no deception, slipped it onto the ring finger of her left hand.If he questioned her placement, he did not let it show on his face.


	2. I Missed You

If Morozko kissed like he wanted to remember, Medved kissed like he wanted to forget.As she shoved him up against the wide elm, he wavered like a summer heat wave and kissed her like he wanted to devour the world.Vasya knew that he was going to get brush burn all up his back from the rough bark, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.All that was was his tongue down her throat, his hands blazing up her back. 

He drew those hands up the nape of her neck, and something inside her gave.The Eater smiled, and took the opportunity to reverse their positions.Vasya found herself laying on a bed of moss without falling, a mess of a man-shaped beast butterflying kisses down her neck with lips as soft as dew and teeth as sharp as daggers.She knew he wouldn’t dare injure her, at least not beyond what could be repaired, but that he would also take great joy in marking her up as his own like a wolf in heat.

His shirt was in the way and then it wasn’t.Forgetting was so easy when her body burned with claws and fire and contradictions.He was preoccupied with her collarbone, but she was impatient.She dragged his head back up to her face and kissed him hard on the mouth, reminding him that two could play this game, and remembered his jawline with one hand while the other cut lines into his back.The Bear grinned into her mouth, and she kissed him harder, wanting to swallow that smile so it couldn’t tear at her so.

She knew the forest was watching, and its eyes weren’t dissimilar to the eyes of the court men who had watched, wary as watchdogs eyeing a fox, on her visits to Moscow.Medved reveled in those eyes, reveled in his influence and his conquests, but they burned into her like flames following wicks in wax. 

His mouth was on her neck again.She shivered despite the summer evening and let her eyes close, one blue eye burned against the backs of her eyelids.The Bear froze suddenly, and Vasya opened her eyes, half expecting Morozko to have appeared out of the August heat.But it was only him she saw over her, smile sly to cue her in that nothing was wrong, he just wanted her eyes _open._

_“_ Greedy tonight, Eater?” Vasya asked.

“I just want to see the fire,” Medved answered, more earnest than she would have wished, “You spend all winter with my brother and it dims, the spark dissipates.But,” His shit-eating grin returned in full force, “All it took to get it back was two weeks and a little nudge, and you’re a full-fledged chaos spirit again.”

Vasya knew she should have been offended by this, knew somewhere in his frosted realm Morozko had just gotten a grim terror, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.Summer was for men and beasts and chaos, winter she could worry about what was right and her training and staying sane.

She forgot he wasn’t under her, and returned his shit eating grin when he was.“I am neither chaos spirit or winter princess, neither human nor chyert.I will never be yours, or his, though you will never not be mine.” 

The Bear’s one eye stared up at her, and Vasya knew that even if he wouldn’t admit it, that was what he was waiting for.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, witch.”

“Good.”

He’d had the whole winter to run wild, to paint nightmares into the dreams of priests, to fell bell towers with fire and fear.Now he was under her again, figuratively as well as literally.For all his bluster and talk of escaping his vows and running amok again, she knew he preferred to be told where to go and who to scare, loved filling her shadow with teeth and seeing the white faces of the Moscow men.She was a boyar in her own right, the representative of the forest in the courts of men.The Eater loved the whispers that followed her around the city, of the witch of the woods, who could set men ablaze with a look and who called the demons to fell the tatar army.

She wasn’t Konstantin, with his golden hair and wicked words, who the Bear twisted around his finger to get his own ends.She was his master, and he was her servant, united in a common goal, bound through blood and memory to each other and Rus’.

The next morning she forgot her bruises, although she noticed with mild pride that the Eater had chosen to keep his.As she strolled into court that day, even those men without the sight noticed that her shadow had teeth, and looked solid enough to swallow a man whole who looked at her wrong.

When she visited her sister and Marya in the term the girl scowled with mistrust and yelled at Vasya “You can’t keep bringing your husbands around here, it scares the domovoi!”

The domovoi might’ve been the most pressing issue to Marya, but for several minutes after Vasya bid them good night, her sister stared off to space.

_“Husbands?”_


	3. Drink Me In

The Bear was not one to discriminate between pleasure and pain, what with so many things remembered and forgotten. She could tell he was having a hard time holding his form, his edges wavering between man and beast. She was weary of battle, weary of the world, fire too-quick between the eyes. Medved growled above her before drawing her up against him, pulling her into his lap as his silhouette lengthened. She wasn’t supposed to enjoy this, wasn’t supposed to welcome the chaos into her mind, but today she was just tired, tired of being alone, tired of Midnight, bone-chilled in the wet autumn.

The Eater was warm, thick hands holding her gently, tongue down her throat. She dug her nails into his hide, and he kissed her hard enough make her bare toes curl. She could feel her resistance crumbling, and wondered what the Bear would do once there was no longer a struggle involved. He seemed only to like to have her when she was fully alive, full of fire and anger and teeth and nails, marking his back and biting his lips. Now she was on the verge of sleep, drunk on pleasure and world-weariness and being warm. Though the Eater was in the process of crushing her into him, she felt safe. His hand was in her hair and she lazily traced his jawline, warrior’s hands gentle on his face. His mouth took a break from her face to kiss down her neck, hips jerky as he enveloped her in his arms.

Vasya was drifting in the warmth, kissing along his hairline and losing her fingers in his dark hair as he explored her collarbones with his tongue. Her ankles hooked around his hips and his arms crushed her even closer, so she leaned into the embrace, molding herself into him. Medved seemed feverish, moreso than usual, reactionary to her shift in demeanor. He finished up bruising her neck and returned to her face, surprised by something he found there. Vasya was melting in his heat, and he grinned, suddenly feral.

His mouth was on hers again, teasing her lower lip between eyeteeth too sharp to be human. She moaned into his mouth and he heaved beneath her, lips commanding hers, holding her so tightly she wondered if he wanted to crawl inside her. Then the grin was back, pressed against her mouth, and she knew somewhere, some other version of her would have been very, very afraid.

Medved bit the inside of his own check as he kissed her, his blood flowing into her own mouth with the taste of sulphur and sun, his hand and head tilting her head back and forcing her to swallow audibly. She jolted in his arms, more and more of his blood streaming down her throat as the Eater bled into her mouth. Vasya felt as if raw vitality had been pumped into her veins, her eyes wide and she was sure, her pupils blown wilder. The Eater was still latched on her lips, grey eye closed as he force-fed her raw energy.

She broke from his hold, gasping for air and brimming with magic. Chaos flowed in her veins and the Eater stared into her eyes, reveling in his work.

This was different from when he’d sealed his pact with her, that had been a single bead of his blood. This time… she wasn’t sure how much he’d dripped down her throat but it was significantly more.

“Why?” She asked, mildly suspicious of his motives.

The Bear pouted, “You were being so tame, Vasochka, I only wanted to give you a reward.”

Vasya’s thoughts swam in front of her eyes, the Eater’s words trailing fire in their wakes. She wasn’t sure she had any human left after that. She was still tired, but her bones felt light, her head filled with light and dark and stars. Medved kissed her again, and she shuddered in her skin, tongue finding the torn cheek and lapping at it for any remainder of the water of life. The Eater encouraged this, hand at the nape of her neck holding her fast to him, allowing her to push him back against the wall behind them. She was drunk on more than just heat, with Medved’s blood running through her veins and the Eater’s hands roaming her body. She kissed the stubble on his jaw and traced down his chest with her hands, she was hungry for all of him and he was more than happy to oblige.

When the fervor of the water wore off, he cradled her to his chest, his human form lost to the night, and held her until she woke up, sentential in this world and that of her dreams. She murmured in her sleep, one hand gripping the heavy paw thrown like a blanket over her shoulder. Her head nestled perfectly into the space under his chin, and he felt her steady breath through her back.


End file.
